Weekly Developer Update #30

DAO Rules of Engagement

7 min readFeb 28, 2024

Today’s WDU is all about the DAO framework: proposals, voting and team involvement.

Cosmicrafts DAO is designed to be community-driven, but a fair DAO needs more than just voting. We’re outlining the rules and principles in place to ensure everyone has a voice — from investors, new players to the founding team.

Transparency is key!

If you’ve been wondering how the community will make decisions and steer the game’s direction, this breakdown is for you.

Cosmicrafts DAO General Principles

DAO First

Every decision, big or small, is about what’s best for the long-term health of the DAO, and by extension, Cosmicrafts itself. This isn’t about short-term crypto gains or individual agendas.

Transparency

You deserve to know how proposals are made, votes are counted, and funds are spent. We’ll have clear systems for tracking information, and if something’s confusing, we’re committed to explaining it.

Inclusivity & Fairness

Whether you’ve been here since day one, or you just joined, you should feel like your participation matters. The system is designed to balance different stakeholders and ensure no single person or group dominates.

These principles shape everything from how your proposal idea is treated, to how conflicts are resolved.

SNS Architecture based on the NNS

The DAO isn’t a free-for-all.

For network participants to be able to vote on proposals, they need to lock up a stake of Spiral tokens for a given period of time to create a representative called a neuron.

Governance and Rules

DAO Participation: Only neuron holders can propose and vote on the SNS DAO according to general principles.
Voting Mechanism: The DAO operates on a democratic voting system, allowing all token holders to influence the direction of Cosmicrafts DAO.

The Proposal System

The Cosmicrafts DAO is built on community ideas and decisions. Here’s the basic framework for how that process operates:

Respecting the Principles

All proposals must align with the Cosmicrafts DAO’s General Principles to be considered.

Debate, Not Rush

Most proposals get at least a week for everyone to discuss their merits. Want to propose a radical new crafting recipe? There’s time to modify it based on community feedback and avoid it getting rejected outright.

Urgent Response

In rare cases, a 24-hour fast-track process should exists for situations that require immediate community input (like addressing a critical bug).

A Small Cost

Submitting a proposal has a minor Spiral cost to deter spam and ensure those proposing are invested in the DAO’s success.

Rewards for Success

If your proposal is both approved by the community AND successfully implemented by the devs, you’ll earn Spiral rewards and potentially become an official advisor!

Team Voting Protocol

You know the team has a significant say in the DAO, but it’s not unlimited power. This protocol outlines when they’ll vote, and how those votes are guided:

Majority Support: If most of the community supports a proposal AND it aligns with the DAO’s General Principles, the team will vote YES as well. This is about amplifying community consensus, not overriding it.
Timely Participation: The team won’t wait until the last second to vote. They’ll participate within a set timeframe, so everyone knows where they stand.
Principle-Based Opposition: If the team believes a proposal fundamentally contradicts the DAO’s principles, they can vote NO. Such opposition will be thoroughly documented and justified, with the rationale made publicly available for review and discussion within the DAO community.
Road Map Alignment: Proposals originating from the DAO’s original Road Map will receive unanimous support from the team, leveraging the full extent of the team’s allocated voting power.
Power Has Limits: The team’s voting power is substantial, but exists to safeguard the DAO, not control it. It’s also temporary; as their tokens gradually dissolve over 8 years, control shifts even more to community stakeholders.

This protocol ensures that the team’s decisions align with the DAO’s foundational principles.

Cosmicrafts DAO Management

1. DAO Control & Canister Management

Canister Ownership: Each significant resource or functionality within the DAO likely exists as its own canister (e.g., Treasury Canister, Voting Canister, etc.). The DAO itself would be a control canister, with upgrade and ownership permissions over these.
Governance Smart Contracts: This control canister would house the smart contracts governing how the DAO itself functions — proposal rules, voting mechanisms, decision thresholds, etc.
Access Restrictions: Canister calls to modify critical aspects of other canisters would likely require a specific DAO vote to pass, preventing unilateral changes.

2. The “Blackholed” Spiral Token Canister

Immutable Deployment: The code for this token canister, once deployed, would be designed to be unchangeable. This means no upgrade functionality, or the controller being set to ‘None’.
Token Functionality: The internal logic of the canister would handle initial minting and transfers fees.
The Risk: This extreme immutability is powerful, but means if a critical bug is discovered post-deployment, it could require a post migration, thorough testing is essential.

3. The Team’s Management Role

Multi-Sig or Threshold Wallets: DAO accounts would be secured by mechanisms requiring multiple authorized keys to perform sensitive actions (instead of a single, easily compromised key).
Transfer Mechanisms: Time-release token vesting for the team, or logic allowing the DAO to re-route allocations if a member leaves, would need to be programmed in relevant canisters.
Contingency & Reserve: These could be distinct canisters the team can transact with for approved purposes, but can’t simply withdraw from at will. Approval would come from the DAO’s governing contracts.

4. KYC Team Integration

Hashing/Linking: A hash of the KYC doc with high entropy is stored on-chain, linking to a secure off-chain storage service.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Proving someone is KYC’d without revealing the actual info.
Public vs. Private: Code could allow basic verification (name, social media, general region) to be public, while detailed info like official IDs is only revealed via privileged calls in legal situations.

Core Components of SNS Architecture

SNS Canisters:

Governance Canister: Central to SNS, it enables stake-based voting and decision-making, storing proposals and neurons.
Ledger Canister: Implements the ICRC-1 standard, managing SNS tokens and transaction histories.
Decentralization Swap Canister: Facilitates the initial funding and distribution of SNS tokens through a swap mechanism during the SNS launch.
Root Canister: Oversees upgrading other SNS canisters and the governed dapp canisters.
Index Canister: Provides a map of transactions relevant to specific accounts, enhancing data accessibility.

DAO Risks and Limits

Even the best-intentioned DAO can face problems. This section outlines some worst-case scenarios and how the Cosmicrafts DAO aims to be prepared:

Trust vs. Control: Once you hold Spiral, you can vote as you see fit. The DAO trusts stakeholders to act in its interest, but can’t 100% guarantee it.
What is a Hostile Takeover? If a single person or group amasses enough voting power, they could steer the DAO in directions against the principles, or even harmful to the game.
No Magic Wand: The team behind Cosmicrafts can’t simply reverse a bad DAO decision. If the takeover follows the established rules, their hands are tied.
Your Choice in Crisis: If a takeover happens, each individual must decide: stay and hope it’s temporary, or “exit” (likely means selling their tokens).
The Law is Murky: Suing a decentralized entity is tricky. The option exists, but success isn’t guaranteed.

Why Be Honest About This?

It might seem scary, but this transparency is important:

Managing Expectations: DAOs are not foolproof. Highlighting the risks shows the team is serious about confronting them honestly, not hiding behind hype.
Prevention > Cure The DAO’s rules (voting power distribution, etc.) are designed to make takeovers hard. Mentioning this issue reinforces the importance of those systems.
Informed Participation: Choosing to join a DAO means accepting not just the potential for rewards, but also the potential for things outside anyone’s control.

Cosmic Wrap-Up

We’re venturing deep into uncharted DAO territory, Commanders! This week, we mapped out the rules that will keep the Cosmicrafts DAO fair, transparent, and focused on the game’s long-term success.

It might be complex stuff, but it lays the foundation to shape the future of a transparent DAO.

Got a burning question about the proposal process? Think a rule could be refined? Let’s keep the discussion flowing in Discord and shape this DAO together.

Next Time…

We’ll go hands-on! We’ll walk through how to actually submit an SNS proposal, explore the voting mechanics, and discuss how you’ll be able to track its progress.

Until then, Commanders — the real work of building this Metaverse community is just beginning.